I read a blog post the other day that I can't stop thinking about. In the Myth of Single Sourcing, Michael Hiatt writes, The main issue for me is between authoring static in-house documents using single-sourcing methods before publishing, or capturing information sources dynamically after publishing from online social networks, linked data sources, and knowledge mashups. The myth of single-source authoring is that it actually has a life i...
We're looking for a contingent senior technical writer to join our User Education team, part of the LDS Church's Information and Communications System department in Riverton, Utah. This is an opportunity to work in an agile environment with about 600+ talented IT professionals. As a member of our team, you'll also get to work with Gryphon Mountain, Doc Guy, other cool people, and me. The job has a few requirements you should be aware of. ...
At the STC Summit in Dallas this year (May 2-5), I'll be giving a presentation titled "Developing a Personal Voice in Audio." I'm moving in the direction of screencasts, focusing on the audio component in this presentation. 2010 STC Summit in Dallas, Texas Here's the presentation description: Narrated video tutorials -- both scripted and spontaneous -- are a powerful tool tech writers can employ to help users learn software. But the audio...
One of Flare's shortcomings is the inability to easily embed video files. However, if you use the Camtasia Studio's Express Show format as your video format (and you choose the SWF option), you can insert the video into Flare by inserting the video as if it were a picture. Here's a two-minute screencast showing the processing for inserting a video into Flare. You can also put the video in a drop-down hotspot.
Listen here: In this brief podcast, I discuss the results of the podcast poll that I published on my site earlier this week. I mostly wanted an opportunity to try out my new Behringer mixer/preamp, and the results of the poll served as perfect fodder for a podcast. In this 15 minutes of audio, I explain the direction that I plan to take my podcast based on the votes and feedback. Polls, surveys, and feedback are always a...
Harry Miller is a multimedia enthusiast who brings his expertise with film and audio to the screencasting world at his job at Microsoft. The following three videos are some of the most creative, mesmerizing video tutorials on Visio I've ever seen. Create an Office Layout Create an organization chart using video Create a Network Diagram These video tutorials don't just teach you how to create various charts in Visio. They...
At the Intermountain STC workshop this morning, we talked about how to build an online presence. During my portion of the workshop, I facilitated a discussion using Twitter. With the dozen participants, all sitting in front of computers with Internet access, I told them to go to Search.Twitter.com and search for the #imstc hashtag. I posed a question for them to answer via Twitter. They responded, including the #imstc hashtag. When you in...
Right now I'm immersed in an online help project in which I've been using Madcap Flare. Here a few tips I've picked up in the past month or so. Embedding Video To embed video into Flare, you have to insert the video as an image file. As long as the video is a SWF file, it embeds directly on the page. In order to keep the Flash player buttons on the video, use Camtasia Studio's Express Show format. Express Show packages the Flash player ...
I recently spent 10 days in Florida visiting my family and giving a couple of presentations to the STC-Suncoast and STC-Orlando chapters on blogging. You can hardly take a family of kids to Florida without going to Disneyworld and Seaworld, so we did that as well. In case you're unaware of the cost of theme parks, prices are enough to bring on a cold sweat and tremor. (Thanks to some friends, one park was free.) After we completed our fou...
I recently attended an STC chapter presentation on interface design, and the speaker, Grant Skousen, showed us the following graphic. Simplicity and complexity We then launched into a discussion about minimalism. I think we all agree that minimalism in user interfaces is an increasing trend, especially with the success of the iPod and iPhone, which are all about simplicity and minimal design. Grant said every time you add something to an...
I'm wary of posting on this topic because I don't want to launch into a long STC discussion. But according to our recent chapter poll, only 21% of our members are planning to renew their STC membership. 21 percent renewal rate Forty six people participated in the poll (we have 77 chapter members). You can read their list of reasons for not renewing in the full survey report. I'm wondering -- if our chapter is a microcosm for the whole, at...
Recently our technical writing team at work (Information Strategies and Design) started holding regular design reviews. The review sessions are patterned after meetings that our interaction designers hold regularly, in which they get together and critique each others designs and approaches toward user interfaces. In our design review sessions, a couple of members from our eight-person team share what they're working on and ask questions a...
The following 10 minute video shows what's new in the help system for the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2. The key trends are as follows: Help is embedded in a browser because the browser is the predominant mode people use to find information. Search is the main method for navigating content. There's still a table of contents, but no more index. When you choose a topic, you see contextual topics related to the topic you...
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a podcast roundtable as part of a series to promote the upcoming Podcamp Salt Lake City, planned for March 26, 2010. Podcamp is a conference on podcasting and videocasting, with local presenters giving both beginning and advanced sessions in an informal setting. Guests on this round table show include Gregory Lemon, Drew Tyler, Thom Allen, and me. We recorded it at the Salt Lake Beta Loft,...
This week I've been on vacation in Florida, visiting my family and touring the theme parks -- Seaworld, Disneyworld, and (soon) Busch Gardens. I used to live in Florida and would go to Busch Gardens all the time. But this week is more extreme. Our first day at Seaworld, I realized my theme park endurance was poor. The next day at Disney was much better, even with just 6 hours of sleep the night before. The second time around Seaworld (of ...
